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On this day: April 23

2007: Boris Yeltsin, the first president of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999, dies of congestive heart failure at the age of 76 in Moscow, Russia.

2005: The first video is uploaded to YouTube.com. It was entitled "Me at the zoo," and shows the site's co-founder Jawed Karim at the San Diego Zoo.

1998: James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of Martin Luther King Jr., dies from complications related to kidney disease and liver failure caused by hepatitis C at the age of 70 in Nashville, Tenn. Three days after pleading guilty in 1969, Ray recanted, hinting at a conspiracy. He spent the remainder of his life unsuccessfully attempting to withdraw his guilty plea and secure a trial.

1996: P. L. Travers, the Australian-English author who created "Mary Poppins," dies at age 96 in London, England. Born Helen Lyndon Goff in Maryborough, Queensland, Australia, she also was an actress before beginning her writing career. She's best known for her series of children's novels about the mystical and magical English nanny Mary Poppins, which inspired the 1964 Disney movie starring Julie Andrews. She's seen here, circa 1924, appearing in the role of Titania in "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

1995: Howard Cosell, arguably the best-known and most controversial sports broadcaster in the history of the medium, dies of a cardiac embolism at the age of 77 in New York City. Cosell, who was a "Monday Night Football" broadcaster from its inception in 1970 through 1984, was especially known for his blustery, cocksure personality, his friendship with boxer Muhammad Ali and his feuds with other sports reporters.

1993: Cesar Chavez, the farm worker, labor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, dies of natural causes at the age of 66 in San Luis, Ariz. After his death he became a major historical icon for the Latino community, organized labor, and the liberal movement, symbolizing support for workers and for Hispanic power based on grass-roots organizing.

1990: Actress Paulette Goddard, best known for movies such as "Modern Times," "The Great Dictator," "The Women" and "The Cat and the Canary," dies of heart failure at the age of 79 in Ronco sopra Ascona, Ticino, Switzerland. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in 1943's "So Proudly We Hail!"

1990: Actor Dev Patel, best known for his roles in the movies "Slumdog Millionaire" and "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," is born in London, England.

1986: Film director, producer and actor Otto Preminger, best known for films such as "Laura," "The Man with the Golden Arm," "Anatomy of a Murder" and "The Cardinal," dies of cancer at the age of 80 in New York City. He was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Director in his career.

1985: Coca-Cola changes its formula and releases New Coke. After overwhelmingly negative response, the original formula was back on the market in less than three months. The new product continued to be sold and retained the name Coca-Cola (until 1992, when it was officially renamed Coca-Cola II), so the old product was named Coca-Cola Classic. New Coke was discontinued entirely in 2002.

1983: Singer-songwriter and music producer Taio Cruz, best known for the No. 1 singles "Break Your Heart" and "Dynamite," is born in London, England.

1977: Wrestler and actor John Cena, a 13-time World Champion in the WWE and the star of movies such as "The Marine," "12 Rounds" and "Legendary," is born in West Newbury, Mass.

1977: Actor Kal Penn, best known for his role on the TV show "House, M.D." and the "Harold and Kumar" film series, is born Kalpen Suresh Modi in Montclair, New Jersey. Since 2009, Penn has also worked on and off as an associate director in the White House Office of Public Engagement.

1976: The Ramones' self-titled debut album is released. The album, which includes the singles "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend," is often cited as the first punk album and reached No. 111 on the Billboard 200 album chart.

1971: The Soviet space program launches Soyuz 10, the world's first mission to the world's first space station, the Soviet Salyut 1. The docking was not successful and the Soyuz 10 crew returned to Earth without having entered the station. The crew of Soyuz 11 would later successfully dock with the space station and stay on board for 23 days before leaving.

1971: The Rolling Stones release their album "Sticky Fingers." The album, the band's first on their newly formed label, Rolling Stones Records, is often regarded as one of the Stones' best, containing songs such as the chart-topping "Brown Sugar" and the folk-influenced "Wild Horses," and achieving triple platinum certification in the U.S.

1967: The Soviet space program launches Soyuz 1, the first flight of the Soyuz spacecraft. The Soyuz 1 mission was to include a rendezvous with Soyuz 2, swapping crew members before returning to Earth, but problems with the Soyuz 2 spacecraft caused its mission to be aborted before it was launched. Cosmonaut Colonel Vladimir Komarov would be killed when the Soyuz 1 spacecraft crashed during its return to Earth, marking the first in-flight fatality in the history of spaceflight.

1964: Ken Johnson of the Houston Colt .45s becomes the only pitcher to lose a complete game no-hitter in nine innings, losing 1-0 to the Cincinnati Reds. The game's only run was scored after Pete Rose reached second base on an error (by Johnson himself), went to third on a ground-out, and scored on a second error.

1961: Actor and comedian George Lopez, best known for his sitcoms "George Lopez" and "Saint George" and the late-night talk show "Lopez Tonight," is born in Los Angeles, Calif.

1960: Actress Valerie Bertinelli, best known for her TV roles on the series "One Day at a Time," "Touched by an Angel" and "Hot in Cleveland," is born in Wilmington, Delaware.

1958: The crime thriller "Touch of Evil," written, directed by, and co-starring Orson Welles, premieres in Los Angeles, Calif. The movie, which also starred Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh, was re-edited by the studio and released as a B-movie. Although it found little commercial success in America, it found an audience in Europe and eventually became considered a film noir classic.

1954: Filmmaker Michael Moore, best known for documentaries such as "Fahrenheit 9/11," "Bowling for Columbine," "Sicko" and "Roger & Me," is born in Flint, Mich. "Fahrenheit 9/11" is the highest-grossing non-concert documentary of all time and winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, while "Bowling for Columbine" won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

1953: The movie western "Shane," starring Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur and Van Heflin, premieres at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The film earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director for George Stevens and Best Supporting Actor for both Brandon deWilde and Jack Palance, but won only for its cinematography.

1951: Banker and politician Charles G. Dawes, who served as the 30th vice president of the United States from 1925 to 1929 and was the co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925 for his work on the Dawes Plan for World War I reparations, dies at the age of 85 in Evanston, Ill. Dawes served in World War I, was the first director of the Bureau of the Budget and became the ambassador to the United Kingdom later in life.

1949: Actress Joyce DeWitt (left), most famous for playing Janet Wood on the sitcom "Three's Company," is born in Wheeling, W.Va.

1943: Actor Hervé Villechaize, best known for playing Mr. Roarke's assistant, Tattoo, on the television series "Fantasy Island" (pictured, with Ricardo Montalban), is born in Paris, France. He also played evil henchman Nick Nack in the 1974 James Bond film "The Man with the Golden Gun" and was an acclaimed painter.

1942: Actress Sandra Dee, known for her wholesome ingenue roles in such 1960s films as "The Reluctant Debutante," "Gidget," "Imitation of Life" and "A Summer Place," is born Alexandra Zuck in Bayonne, N.J. Dee, who died of complications from kidney disease in 2005 at the age of 62, was also known for her high-profile marriage to singer-actor Bobby Darin, which ended in divorce in 1967.

1940: Fire breaks out at the Rhythm Club dance hall in Natchez, Miss., killing 209 people. Many victims died from smoke inhalation or by being crushed by the crowd trying to escape, with the club's windows boarded over and the back door padlocked. The fire is still listed as the second deadliest club fire in U.S. history after the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire in Boston, Mass., on Nov. 28, 1942, which killed 492 people.

1939: Actor Lee Majors, best known for his roles in the TV series "The Big Valley," "The Six Million Dollar Man" and "The Fall Guy," is born in Wyandotte, Mich.

1936: Rock singer-songwriter Roy Orbison, whose best-known hits include "Only the Lonely," "Crying" and "Oh, Pretty Woman," is born in Vernon, Texas. He died of a heart attack at age 52 on Dec. 6, 1988.

1928: Actress, singer and dancer Shirley Temple, who started her film career at the age of 3 and starred in hit films such as "Curly Top," "Heidi" and "The Little Princess," is born in Santa Monica, Calif. Her popularity waned as she reached adolescence and she retired from film completely by the age of 22. In 1967, she ran unsuccessfully for United States Congress, and was appointed U.S. ambassador to Ghana in 1974 and to Czechoslovakia in 1989. She died at age 85 on Feb. 10, 2014, from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

1921: Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Warren Spahn, who won 363 games, more than any other left-handed pitcher in history, in his 21-year major-league career, is born in Buffalo, N.Y. Spahn pitched most of his career for the Boston/Milwaukee Braves, winning the Cy Young Award and leading Milwaukee to a World Series title in 1957, before playing his final year in 1965 for the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants. He died at age 82 on Nov. 24, 2003.

1914: Wrigley Field opens as Weeghman Park for the Chicago Whales baseball team of the Federal League. It was called Cubs Park between 1920 and 1926 before being renamed for then Cubs team owner and chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. Known for its ivy-covered brick outfield walls and its hand-operated scoreboard, is the oldest National League ballpark and the second oldest active major league ballpark, after Fenway Park, which opened on April 20, 1912.

1896: The first movie shown to a paying theater audience in the U.S. is presented using Thomas Edison's Vitascope. The movie featured a series of short scenes and was part of a program with other acts at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City. Included in the film shorts were a ballet scene, a burlesque boxing match, waves on a seashore, and a comic allegory "The Monroe Doctrine," all of which were projected at about half life size.

1858: Max Planck, the theoretical physicist who originated quantum theory, which won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918, is born in what today is Kiel, Germany.

1850: English poet William Wordsworth, one of the founders of the Romantic school of poetry, dies of pleurisy at age 80 in Cumberland, United Kingdom. Britain's poet laureate from 1843 until his death, he published the poetry collection "Lyrical Ballads" with Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1798 to help launch the Romantic movement. His best work is generally considered to be "The Prelude," a posthumously published semiautobiographical poem of his early years that he revised and expanded a number of times over his life.

1813: Politician Stephen A. Douglas, a Democratic congressman and nominee for U.S. president in the 1860 election against Abraham Lincoln, is born in Brandon, Vt. Douglas and Lincoln were familiar adversaries, with Douglas previously defeating Lincoln in a U.S. Senate contest noted for the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858.

1791: James Buchanan, the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861, is born in Cove Gap, Pa. Buchanan's inability to impose peace on a sharply divided country on the brink of the American Civil War has frequently landed him on historians' rankings as one of the worst U.S. presidents.

1789: U.S. President George Washington moves into the Samuel Osgood House, a mansion at the northeast corner of Pearl and Cherry streets in Manhattan, New York City. It was the first executive mansion. Washington lived at the mansion until February 1790, when he moved to the larger Alexander Macomb House on Broadway.

1635: The first public school in the United States, Boston Latin School, is founded in Boston, Mass. The school also remains open today, making it the oldest existing school in the U.S. Pictured is a plaque commemorating the original location of the school on what is now Boston's School Street.

1616: English playwright and poet William Shakespeare, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist, dies at the age of 52 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. His tragic plays written in the early 1600s, including "Hamlet," "King Lear," "Othello" and "Macbeth," are considered some of the finest works in the English language. This date in 1564 is also traditionally observed as Shakespeare's birthday, although his actual date of birth remains unknown. He was also born in Stratford-upon-Avon and baptized there on April 26, 1564.

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